I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 182

“How could this be?” Old Xu stared at the mirage vapor rising from the ground fissure, murmuring, “The ground fissure is dangerous, but the mirage vapor is safe? Why is this so contradictory?”

The scene before him seemed very difficult for Old Xu to understand.

He even disregarded his own safety, rushing directly to the edge of the ground fissure and grabbing at the humid mirage vapor with his hands.

“Safe?” His expression showed complete disbelief.

Old Xu’s gaze kept shifting back and forth between the ground fissure and the mirage vapor.

The white mist rising upward grew thicker and thicker, surrounding Old Xu in the morning sunlight.

Not only that, but this white mist also began spreading outward, rapidly extending along the ground.

Seeing that Old Xu was about to be swallowed by the mirage vapor, he quickly escaped and returned to Li Luo and Li Xiangyi’s side.

“Below that ground fissure, it’s all Shell People shells! I saw it!” As soon as he returned, Old Xu revealed something that shocked everyone immensely.

“The Shell People graveyard has come beneath Oasis City,” Old Xu said in a daze. “This won’t do. I need to quickly report this to the guard team.”

He took out his citizen card from his cloak and directly clicked the emergency button on top, but it didn’t connect for a long time, continuously showing busy.

“There are too many people calling the police now.”

“I don’t know if they can see it,” Old Xu said anxiously, waving his hand holding the citizen card.

Old Xu quickly began editing messages and sent them to many people.

But he didn’t receive any replies for a long time.

At this time, he noticed that the ground fissure was still continuously gushing out mirage vapor.

The mist emanating from the ground fissure grew more and more abundant, rapidly spreading along the ground to various places.

Initially, the mirage vapor had been rising bit by bit, but now it was like a volcanic eruption, rolling and gushing forth.

Old Xu had intended to return to the dome area to personally report his discovery to that officer, but soon the mirage vapor rose above their heads, swallowing them within.

“Don’t move around!” Old Xu quickly warned. This suddenly thick mirage vapor immediately blocked the group’s vision.

Visibility rapidly decreased, and even surrounding objects began to blur.

This mirage vapor was even denser than the previous two encounters, so dense it appeared somewhat gray. The morning sunlight shining into the thick fog seemed powerless.

“Broken.” The sun rose, and sunlight drilled into the mirage vapor. The refracted rainbow light suddenly expanded, and Mo Ling watched helplessly as the rainbow light swallowed Li Luo and the others.

However, the faint rainbow light also began appearing at the edges of the mirage vapor, spreading everywhere with the mirage vapor.

This had no effect on Mo Ling, as no matter how dense the mirage vapor became, it couldn’t affect his vision.

Although Mo Ling’s vision wouldn’t be blocked by thick fog, the rainbow light gradually covering everything around him caused him great interference.

The previous mirage vapor would also cover Li Luo and the others’ figures, but when they moved, it would break the mirage vapor’s concealment and they would instantly appear.

But now, the overly dense mirage vapor seemed to hide the moving group within it. Not only that, but even sounds had disappeared.

Everything around was rapidly changing. In an instant, Mo Ling could no longer distinguish whether it was a real scene or illusion created by mirage vapor.

“Too fast.” This mirage vapor spread without giving people time to react. Mo Ling felt very anxious but was helpless.

Mo Ling quickly controlled the Cube to descend, wanting to get close to the group, but when he descended near the ground, their figures were already gone.

“Where did they go?”

However, this didn’t affect Mo Ling much, as no matter how dense the mirage vapor became, it couldn’t affect his vision.

Just then, noisy human voices suddenly came from nearby. Mo Ling quickly approached and indeed discovered several figures in a patch of rainbow light.

Mo Ling immediately flew over, but the figures before him were very strange.

Those weren’t Li Luo and the others, but several office workers in suits carrying briefcases. They seemed to be talking about something.

“The cafeteria food is getting worse and worse. When Sister Guo was here, it wasn’t this bad.”

“Of course, her Relic could specifically create delicious food.”

“But I heard that Relic’s cost is permanently losing one’s sense of taste. All the delicious food can only be tasted by others. If it were me, I wouldn’t be willing to bear such a cost…”

Cafeteria? Delicious food?

“How can they still be so leisurely?” Mo Ling had just become confused when he suddenly realized something was wrong.

“This is a virtual image!”

The mirage vapor was recreating the scene of these office workers chatting one day!

As Mo Ling was thinking this, dense crowds of figures appeared around him. Those rainbow lights that had been visible everywhere also transformed into incredibly realistic scenes.

Sunlight fell down, and the weather was very clear.

The crowd chatted as they passed beneath the Cube. In the blink of an eye, it had become an ordinary morning.

The mirage vapor had also disappeared at this time, but Mo Ling knew the mirage vapor hadn’t truly disappeared.

“All of this is mirage vapor.”

Looking at the bustling street, Mo Ling felt somewhat dazed.

Just moments ago it was thick fog everywhere, and in the blink of an eye it was bright sunshine.

The lively crowd appeared out of nowhere. The office workers who had just been chatting greeted each other and walked toward the building.

This was the core area in the morning. When he had first arrived at Oasis City, Mo Ling had seen such scenes.

The surrounding buildings and facilities were still in perfect condition, showing no traces of earthquake damage. The historical virtual image was completely covering reality.

Most of the people coming and going were office workers rushing in the morning. If not for the Hunters in combat uniforms mixed among them, Mo Ling would have felt this was just like the familiar urban commercial district on Earth.

Mo Ling didn’t intend to act rashly at this time, just quietly staying in place.

Just then, a conspicuous convoy appeared in the distance.

Seeing this eye-catching convoy, the crowd couldn’t help but stop and watch.

“It’s the guard team.”

When he had first arrived at Oasis City, the vehicles that picked up Li Luo and Li Xiangyi were the same type.

The convoy stopped in front of a tower-shaped building—exactly the office building where Li Luo had previously reported intelligence about the Black Tower.

“Wait, could this be the morning when we first came to Oasis City?” Mo Ling suddenly had a familiar feeling.

Sure enough, a guard got out and called for the two people in the car to get out.

Those two were exactly Li Luo and Li Xiangyi. They were curiously observing their surroundings, then followed that soldier into the building.

“It’s indeed that time.”

Mo Ling’s familiar feeling wasn’t wrong. He had just changed position and was watching this scene again.

But something felt strange.

“Something seems to be missing?”

Something wasn’t quite right.

The crowd was completely the same. Mo Ling even remembered some familiar faces.

The soldiers in the convoy were also identical.

Li Luo and Li Xiangyi showed no abnormalities either.

“What exactly is missing?” The more Mo Ling looked, the stranger it felt.

Suddenly, he was greatly startled, realizing something. A question exploded thunderously in his mind.

“Where did the Cube go?”